In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

Luke 1:5-7

When I read this passage this morning, I stopped and wrote in the margin of my Bible, "Sometimes the righteous are barren." 

Why did I feel the need to point this out? Why did it strike me as notable?

Because prosperity theology is ubiquitous in Christendom, and it's destroying people's lives.

There are still a lot of people who believe that material and physical affluance are marks of God's favor, while suffering and lean times are a sign of God's judgment. I hear it from the mouths of friends who are otherwise intelligent people, yet they have bought into some nonsense that flies in the face of much of what Jesus taught and Paul wrote about what it means to follow God, and even what it means to be blessed. 

"Blessed are the poor," Jesus said, and, "Blessed are you when you are persecuted."

"I suffer for following Christ," Paul said, over and over and in many different ways, "and I'm blessed for it." 

Even in churches where pastors are intentional about confronting the lie of the prosperity gospel, people still carry around in their hearts and minds a theology rooted deeply in that stream. My own pastor has pleaded from the pulpit for people to renounce such theology, yet still, it comes out in big and small ways as people pray or discuss what is happening in their lives.

Plenty has been written lately on the evils of the prosperity gospel heresy, yet still, I was compelled to stop and marvel at this truth as it jumped off the page of the gospel: sometimes the righteous are barren.

The prosperity gospel is a noose around peoples' necks. Grace has no place in the prosperity gospel. The prosperity gospel is evil, and I want people to be freed from its yoke.

There are many good reasons for the righteous to be barren. In my own life, seasons of barrenness and failure to thrive have been where I have learned grace and mercy and God's kindness. And it is in barrenness that God has humbled me, teaching me that God's presence are my highest reward.

Sometimes the righteous are barren, by God's design and for God's glory.